Godly people speak long after their deaths, inspiring us and revealing to us lives that are worthy of imitation. Octavius Winslow thus took up the daunting task of writing a memoir of his God-fearing mother, Mary Winslow (1774-1854). He viewed her as a grace-filled example of true spirituality, the antithesis of "religious formalism," which he called "the bane of the Christian church." One simple line captures his esteem for her: "How powerful and deathless is the influence of a holy mother "

Mary Winslow's letters are a treasure of experimental and practical divinity. Living, vital Christianity is here set before us in undeniable reality, flowing out of the resurrected Christ. We learn, in her words and by her example, how to "deal unceasingly with God as God deals unweariedly with us."